Teaching Introductory Geoscience Courses in the 21st Century

Activities for Introductory Geoscience

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Here you will find a wide range of activities for teaching introductory geoscience courses. you can refine your search by selecting the topic or resource type, or by typing in search terms into the search box in the box below.

Resource Type: Activities

Observations and Measurements in Geologypart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities This exercise gives students an introduction to topics they will encounter throughout the semester, and future course work. It covers plate tectonics, weathering, and basic rock descriptions.

Earth and Mars Core Samplingpart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities The activity focuses on sedimentology and core sampling here on Earth and makes comparisons with core samples from Mars to determine the composition of the material underneath the surface.

Incomprehensibly Small and Incomprehensibly Largepart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities Students are asked to consider the length scales of the universe, from smallest to largest. Using a logarithmic scale in cm units, various distances are resolved ranging from the smallest meaningful length in ...

Book Review of a Popular Science Bookpart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities Students select a popular science book to read and then write a book review and give a short oral book review to their classmates.

Short Geology Research Paperpart of Activities Students are assigned to take a topic and research it in some depth, beyond the discussion in the class or in the book. The paper is 4-6 typed pages in length. Suggested topics include geologic hazards, geologic ...

Homework assignments for Intro Geologypart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities These homework assignments consist of vocabulary and questions used as the basis for classroom discussion, guided reading, and as the basis for exams. Testing on these assignments rewards students for work already ...

Proposing Questions for the Upcoming Midterm Exampart of Cutting Edge:Introductory Courses:Activities This in-class activity involves groups of 2-3 students who review assigned sections of course material to generate exam questions (including answers), in one of several assigned formats. They then trade results and ...

Observing Streams & Rivers in Google Earthpart of Cutting Edge:Early Career:Previous Workshops:Workshop 2010:Teaching Activities Students are asked to observe fluvial features on both Earth and Mars in satellite images via Google Earth (as well as online panoramas) and explore processes of erosion and deposition and the relationship of ...

Formation of the solar systempart of Cutting Edge:Visualization:Examples This assignment or demonstration works really well for me in describing the formation of the solar system, the shapes and changes in planetary orbits, and introduces Milankovitch cycles.

JiTT - Life on the Moon and Marspart of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Just in Time Teaching:Examples 1) Based on "Microbial Colony in US..." article, what are Archaea? 2) From the same article, which of the following is NOT evidence to support life on Mars? a) Mars' subsurface groundwater system b) ...

Sun Path: Interactive On-line Mac or PCpart of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Mathematical and Statistical Models:Mathematical and Statistical Models Examples Students use SunPath in the yearly mode to investigate seasonal changes in sunrise, sunset, length of day and sun altitude at their own latitude. JAVA activity for Mac or PC. -

Phases of the Moonpart of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Interactive Lecture Demonstrations:Examples This exercise has students use a simple physical model of the Earth, sun, and moon to understand why the moon changes phases from the perspective of Earthly observers. -

Impact Craters and Water on Marspart of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Undergraduate Research:Examples Students explore for water on Mars using impact crater morphology. During this lab, students: learn to use the equation writing and graphing capabilities in Microsoft Excel, thendevelop and apply an impact crater depth-diameter relationship in an effort to constrain the depth to a possible water-rich layer beneath one or more portions of the surface of Mars!

Mars Cratering Teaching Notespart of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Undergraduate Research:Examples Teachers guide to the approach The following 5-point section of text describes the process most students will follow. Load each image into the image program of your choice and adjust the brightness and contrast so ...

GEOLogic: Terrestrial and Jovian Planetspart of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection In this two-part example, students are given clues about properties about the terrestrial and Jovian planets respectively and asked to match up the planet with the correct equatorial radius, mean orbital velocity, and period of rotation.

Laboratory Activity: The Sun and Climatepart of Quantitative Skills:Activity Collection In this physical geography lab, students examine the relationship between solar altitude, solar declination, and temperature regimes. Using data collected in the field, mathematical relationships, and temperature records available on the Internet, students compare the insolation and climate in their location to that of other locations.

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Provenance: NAGTReuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

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The On the Cutting Edge website and workshop program are supported by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Your membership is helping to ensure that this site can continue to serve geoscience educators.